Chafing Passions

THERESE--Franc,ois Mauriac--Translated by Eric Sutton--Boni & Liveright ($2.50). Therese has just been acquitted of attempt to poison her husband, and on the dismal train jolting homeward she reviews the drab story. True, her husband saved her from conviction, but only for the sake of family reputation, and not because he loved her or ever could understand. How could she explain to him, fat, complacent? She had welcomed the matter-of-fact marriage that had united her beautiful pine forest so profitably with his. And she had not hated him until her friend Anne fell passionately in love, and showed Therese all that she had missed. Then, fierce in jealousy, she had contrived to ruin Anne's affair, and slowly, maliciously attempted freedom for herself. With uncanny accuracy French Author Mauriac depicts the passions of a modern woman chafing under the restrictions of old-world landed gentry.